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The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration (known internationally as The Land Before Time X: The Great Migration), directed by Charles Grosvenor, is the tenth film in The Land Before Time series. It was originally released direct-to-video on December 2, 2003. The plot of the movie focuses on a large quantity of Longnecks anticipating a solar eclipse, believing it to be a sign that the Bright Circle (sun) is about to fall from the sky, and that only they can stop this from occurring. A subplot involves main character Littlefoot finally meeting his father, Bron.

Arguably one of the better-received sequels to the original The Land Before Time, The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration has also been re-released several times, while the guest characters Bron and Shorty have become iconic characters among fans of the series.

Japanese voice cast

Plot

Plagued by mysterious dreams, Littlefoot, Grandma and Grandpa Longneck decide that the time has come for a journey, however they have no idea why, where to, or when they will leave. After telling his friends, Littlefoot is told that it is time to leave, and departs from the Valley with his grandparents. Ducky, Petrie and Spike wish that they could go with them, but Cera insists that the whole idea is stupid. But a later dream, in which the longneck family returns in glory to the Valley to a standing ovation from the other dinosaur herds, she decides to follow them to find out what is going to happen.

Littlefoot and his grandparents travel through the Mysterious Beyond, where Littlefoot is saved from a Belly Dragger by young Supersaurus named Sue, who laments about how no matter where she goes, she is always the tallest. They soon meet other Longnecks who have had similar dreams. These Longnecks travel together, soon numbering in the hundreds. Finally they arrive, at an enormous crater, where hundreds and hundreds of Longnecks have gathered.

Cera and the others who have been following them, are attacked by the same Belly Dragger, and shortly after are attacked by a gray Tyrannosaurus, who walks off after they hide. They then meet an old Apatosaurus named Pat, who joins them on their journey.

Littlefoot is in for a surprise, however. As Littlefoot is confronted by another young longneck named Shorty, an argument between the two ensues, which is broken up by an older Longneck. As he apologizes for Shorty, Grandpa Longneck recognizes the longneck and reveals to Littlefoot that he is his father, Bron, whom he has never met before. Littlefoot runs, upset, hurt and confused by this sudden revelation, but Bron finds him and explains his absence to Littlefoot: when the region in which Littlefoot was born suffered from a drought, he went off in search of a better land to raise Littlefoot (who had not even been laid in an egg at the time). When Bron returned, the Great Earthshake (earthquake) seen in the original film had occurred, and he could not find his family anywhere. He continued to search for them, hoping every time he saw a young longneck that it might be Littlefoot, but found no trace of them. Another dinosaur informed him of what happened to his wife, but had no information on what became of Littlefoot or his grandparents. In the meantime, dozens of longnecks of various ages, including Shorty, looked to Bron for support, and he ended up as the leader of a new herd.

As Bron and Littlefoot bond over a matter of days, Bron informs Littlefoot that while most of the orphaned Longneck children he found were adopted, Shorty never got adopted. Shorty has become jealous of Littlefoot for now receiving most of Bron's attention, since Littlefoot is his biological son, and bullies Littlefoot consequently. At dawn one day, Shorty plans to run away, but Littlefoot persuades him not to leave, telling him that he'll always be special to Bron and that no one could ever take his place. He even suggest's that they form a brotherly bond. As they return to the other herds, Petrie appears to tell Littlefoot that the others will be along shortly. Cera, Ducky and Spike do indeed show up, but are being chased by an orange Sharptooth. Pat bravely fights the Sharptooth but is slightly weakened due to an injury he got during the journey. Luckily, Bron awakens to the sound of a Sharptooth and hears the the children scream for help. As Bron rushes in to protect the children and fends off the Sharptooth, the gray Sharptooth and another Sharptooth arrive and attack the group. A battle ensues with Littlefoot and his friends, Shorty, Bron, Grandma and Grandpa Longneck and Pat banding together against the three Sharpteeth, and after a fierce struggle, drive them off. Suddenly, the rest of the Longnecks appear on the ridge of the crater as the sky goes dark. Believing the Bright Circle to be going dark and falling, the Longnecks stretch their necks up, ready to push the sun back into the sky, just as their ancestors did in the legends. As it happens, what is truly happening is a solar eclipse, which soon passes. The Longnecks rejoice, believing they have averted disaster.

With their mission completed, the herds depart. However, Cera notices that Littlefoot seems upset. He informs her and the others that now that the longnecks have done what they set out to do, he is stuck with the choice of either returning to the Great Valley with his grandparents and friends, or living with his father's herd. Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike tell him that no matter what he chooses, and no matter where he goes, they will always be his friends.

Ultimately, Littlefoot realizes that his friends and grandparents need him, and he needs them, and tell's Bron that he's not ready to leave them behind. Littlefoot asks Bron to adopt Shorty, knowing how much Shorty needs a family and to be loved and Bron agrees. Bron also insists that they will meet again soon. He and Littlefoot embrace, then he scoops Shorty up on his head and heads off with his herd. Littlefoot watches them leave, and then joins his friends and family to return to the Great Valley.

Production

The original title for the film was simply "The Great Migration", which is incidentally the same name as one of the melodies on the soundtrack of the original The Land Before Time. Even though this film was presented in full screen on DVD worldwide (since that was what aspect ratio the film was created in), the film is matted to widescreen (cropping the top and bottom of the image) on a Hebrew DVD in Israel.[1] This was the first film in the series to use fully computer-generated dinosaurs.

So that audiences could immediately identify the voice actor, Kiefer Sutherland used his own voice for the character Bron.

In a 2009 interview with Shiela Roberts of MoviesOnline, on his role as General W.R. Monger in Monsters vs. Aliens, Kiefer Sutherland made a brief reference to his role as Bron in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, and states that he wanted the character's voice to sound like his own, so the audience would recognize him in the part; a practice he said he commonly applies to his animated roles.[2]

Reception

Analysis

James Plath said on Reel.com that The Great Longneck Migration was among the best of the sequels to The Land Before Time, together with The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving, The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, and The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze. He believed it was one of the more plot-filled of the installments, and would likely be one that children would want to watch many times over. He also said that the concept of main character Littlefoot finally meeting his father, but in the end deciding to stay with his grandparents whilst his dad stays with his herd, makes the film an ideal choice for children and fathers who live similar lives to watch together.[3] Bonnie Sayers on Bella Online.com said that Littlefoot's union with his father was a great surprise, but she thought it nice to see Littlefoot and his friends get acquainted with Bron and Shorty. She liked that the films in the Land Before Time series typically have more than one story occurring in them, but the stories always end up uniting at the end to solve the overall problem.[4]. Rotten Tomatoes currently gives the movie a 57%.

Ratings

The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration has a current rating of 5.9 stars out of 10 at the Internet Movie Database, based on 862 votes.[5]

Cultural influence

Merchandise

The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration was first domestically released on December 2th, 2003, on VHS and DVD. It was released again on DVD, in the 2 Tales of Discovery and Friendship package, on September 19th, 2006. Its most recent release was in the 2 Tales of Discovery and Friendship carrying case edition.[7]

TV Airings

Music

The music for The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration was scored by Michael Tavera. This was the first film in the series that did not use James Horner's original score. Only one older theme from two previous sequels was used in two parts of this film; one time where Shorty trips Littlefoot and the other time where Cera tries to jump over a river.

Songs

Bestest Friends - also known as "Best of Friends". The music of this song is heard multiple times throughout this movie in the background. It is heard when Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike are missing Littlefoot after he leaves the Great Valley with his grandparents, and when Littlefoot tells Bron he wants to stay with his grandparents and friends in the Great Valley.

Soundtrack

The Attack - When Shorty trips Littlefoot and later when Cera tries to jump over a river.[8]

Bittersweet - When Cera goes to Littlefoot to ask him why he's upset, and Littlefoot explains to his friends that he doesn't know whether he should go with his dad or stay with them. This music is similar to Tender Moment, but has a different key.[9]

Broken Engagement - When Littlefoot tells Shorty he'll always be special to Bron, and proposes that they be brothers.[10]

Eclipse - When the eclipse happens and the Longnecks believe the Bright Circle is falling.[11]

Father Son - When Bron confronts Littlefoot and explains why he was gone for so long.[12]

Hard Choices - When Littlefoot talks to Shorty who has left the crater because he thinks Bron wont pay any attention to him now that he has Littlefoot.[13]

Sue A - When Littlefoot runs across the rocks in the swamp right towards a Belly Dragger, only for Sue to save him at the last moment.[14]

Tender Moment - When Littlefoot and his Grandparents talk about their strange sleep stories, and when Bron tells Littlefoot he wants him to stay with him. This music is similar to Bittersweet, but has a different key.[15]

Trivia

This is the first appearances of Shorty and Bron.

Mo makes a cameo appearance in the "Adventuring" musical number. This, along with his cameo appearance in the "Flip, Flap, Fly" musical number in The Great Day of the Flyers makes him the only reacurring character from the sequels besides Tria to appear in three films.

It is revealed in this film that Bron was called "Littlefoot" as a child. This would seem to imply Littlefoot's mother gave her son her husband's nickname as a given name, contradicting an earlier explanation given in a tie-in book.

Pat's name is likely derived from his species name, Apatosaurus. Similarly, Bron's name is apparently derived from "Brontosaurus" the now obsolete scientific name for the species, and Sue may be derived from the name of her species, an extremely large sauropod named Supersaurus.

Bron's referral to Grandpa Longneck as "Papa Longneck" indicates that he is Grandpa and Grandma Longneck's son-in-law.

Although Littlefoot and Bron are both saddened by the loss of Littlefoot's mother, Littlefoot understands Sharpteeth better than his father does; this is likely due to his experiences with Chomper. With nothing to dissuade him, however, Bron hates carnivorous dinosaurs and thinks of them as "cowards".

The movie's title sparked rumors that the guest character Ali (from The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists) would make a reappearance, as she was part of a migrating herd, and many of the character's fans were disappointed that she did not appear. However, she does reappear in "The Brave Longneck Scheme" episode of the TV series. It's also possible that Doc would've appeared in this film, but did not what so ever and since Doc is much of a loner it's highly possible he refused to join the other longnecks in the migration.

The story regarding the supposed "feud" between the Night Circle (moon) and Bright Circle (sun), and how the longnecks acquired their namesake by saving the latter, is contradicted by another story in the later-released TV series episode, "The Legend of the Story Speakers", which instead posits that the longnecks gained their namesakes after the Night Circle lengthened their necks to compensate for the Bright Circle making the trees taller.

Littlefoot is no longer considered an orphan, as he meets his father.

Now that Littlefoot and Shorty are adoptive brothers, Littlefoot is no longer an only child.

Littlefoot's eyes twinkle when he's dreaming.

This is the third film in which Grandma Longneck is shown crying.

This is the fifth film in which Littlefoot cries.

With the running time of 84 minutes, this is considered the longest Land Before Time film in history.

Goofs

When Cera whispers her plan about crossing the fast water to Ducky, Spike, and Petrie, the latter three run off towards Pat in fear. Petrie shouldn't have to be afraid of the idea, since he could easily fly over the river. However, he could have fled out of concern for [the well-being of] Cera, Ducky, and Spike.

When Littlefoot wakes up in the middle of the night to sneak back and sleep with Bron, Grandpa Longneck's lower jaw has the same coloration of his upper jaw.

When singing "Bestest Friends" Cera sings "I'll see you in my dreams" even though they call their dreams "sleep stories".